A Bit of Chicken Humor: or the truth about eggs

October 16, 2010October 17, 20105 Comments

Chickens the world over have one thing in common. They all lay eggs. The process of ‘puberty,’ if you will, begins at about age 4 to 6 months on average. The event is always spectacular to hear. She lays her egg in the nest and then begins a litany of clucking that could raise the dead and will begin the other hens to clucking as well. Every day and every time.

All of them.

Nineteen of them.

Now you might begin to suspect this would be annoying to hear every day, but it isn’t. Well, not to me anyway. I hear the cackling begin and think it is all for fun to them. Seriously. Why just the other day I heard them all laughing at a something Tippy The Buff Polish was clucking…

Gaaaak! KAK, Kak, kak…! and Cuck, cuk, cuc, and cackle-cackle currrrrr, etc.

Translation?

Tippy the BP:

“Ahhh, ha-ha-ha! Girls listen to this!

Today I snapped up five brown beetles,two juicy green worms, and a couple of spiders hiding out back. Mmmmm… and for dessert I had this giant Palmetto bug! (whispered) Then I found this…

Oh! Hey girls… Shhh! SHHHHHH! Here comes the Lady of the Farmlet with her basket to steal my hard work!”

All the Girls:

*“Caaaaak, Cac-Cac-cac-cack!”

Well, I actually could be grossed out by all, but the truth of it is this:

If my chickens were not left out to pasture each day my eggs would be bland and boring! This is because it is the grasses, weeds, seeds, and well, bugs that make the lovely orange color in the yolks. You just won’t find it in store-bought eggs. My girls are also wonderful, organic pest control and garden fertilizers as well.

Now eggs come in many sizes and colors.

( http://www.dreamthymefarm.com/farmproducts.html )

The first eggs are usually small, an inch in diameter or so measured through the middle, and as time goes by the hen matures and they get much larger.

However, sometimes the younger hen will produce this…

It is called a “Double Yolker” and it is produced by an immature hen. When two yolks come into the egg chamber they are encapsulated into the shell as one.

Poor little hens!

Rest assured, this is not a lifelong condition! Thankfully, it is intermittent lasting only about a month at the beginning of laying.

So, while I may appreciate all my Girls do for me and love to eat their eggs, I am nevertheless glad I am not a chicken!

“:< >

*The sound a chicken makes when it’s laughing at you.

This Misty Morning

October 13, 2010October 16, 20107 Comments

I wake up to see Bob off to work with a sleepy hug, and then with a kiss he’s off. Looking out the window I watch him drive into the darkness…

Lingering I gaze through the glass as morning comes. Slow and sleepy it creeps only to be met with mist and fog. Turning from the window I throw on a jacket to break the chill and go out to do morning chores. As I open chicken hutches, throw scratch, and greet the geese, the haze begins to burn off and reveal my surroundings.

What awaits me is a dreamy visage of this pastoral life.

Out behind us we have new neighbors who’ve been moved in just this week.

Content to be in new surroundings they chew grass

ignoring me as I spy on them.

I turn away from the fence to go in and chance to see Little Bit entranced with something up the tree…

The chattering tells me it is a little squirrel. The anger in its chirruping sound tells me it is none too happy about being watched so intently.

Rounding the corner of the house my gaze finds…

the garden’s scarecrow.

Standing limp and faded she gives testament

to a hot, harsh summer we all survived…

The memory of which will also fade,

when fall gives way to winter.

But for now…

The season is dry grass with a slow burn consuming the leaves of the trees.

Signs of the times… Huntsville style

September 27, 2010June 5, 20131 Comment

In my two plus years living here in the Huntsville area I have always been, well… Shall we say amused by some of the signs I see about town? I feel the need to spread some fun! So, without further commentary I would love to see some of the captions you can come up with for the following. Oh yes, and I will post more from time to time.

Let the fun begin!

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~ And finally ~

NOTE: this post was linked to the WordPress Daily Post, Weekly Photo Challenge: The sign says

You can see more fun signage on their site HERE

Looking for Dryads

September 24, 2010September 24, 20104 Comments

Although we are officially into the Autumn there are no real indications of it here on the Farmlet. The weather has been in the mid to high 90’s all week and all of my world, both inside and out, is covered in a layer of dust. The weather man forecasts a low with a cooling trend and rain for us this weekend and into next week. I wait for its refreshing.

But for today I share with you a magical day when Autumn was truly spectacular.